Politics and the press

This is a specialized tracking project by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker to collect and catalog reports of press freedom aggressions by candidates and their teams running in federal elections.

We believe that candidates’ treatment of journalists while running for office gives us insight into how they may behave when they become elected officials — and that this blog may serve as one measure to hold them accountable. From Nov. 5, until Election Day 2024, we’ll update this searchable blog with relevant incidents from across the U.S., topped off with the most recent reports.

If a journalist is denied access or removed from a federal campaign event, we’ll review the facts of the incident to determine if it gives rise to First Amendment concerns.

Among the factors we consider in our inquiries are whether or not a candidate had Secret Service protection, if their campaign is publicly funded, and who was involved with the decision to remove working press from an event or otherwise deny access.

This article was first published on Nov. 5, 2023.

Journalists from several news organizations were denied credentials for Donald Trump’s election night watch event on Nov. 5, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Florida, according to news reports.

Reporters for Axios, Mother Jones, Puck and Voice of America were among them, CNN reported. In addition, a team of reporters and a photographer for Politico, initially approved for credentials, learned on Election Day that the campaign revoked the approval.

The CNN account cited one source who said the denials came in response to articles critical of the Trump campaign. Another source “familiar with the campaign’s decisions” acknowledged the account generally, but said the denials were due to what the campaign considered “inaccurate” reporting.

Politico Magazine, for instance, reported on Nov. 4 that a white nationalist had been fired from the Trump campaign. Axios reporter Sophia Cai, who was also denied a credential, had reported shortly before on “anxiety” within the Trump campaign ahead of Election Day, according to the CNN account.

Puck’s political correspondent Tara Palmeri, who was scheduled to broadcast from the event as part of an Amazon special hosted by Brian Williams, published an article suggesting that Trump campaign operatives had become concerned about early-voting counts showing stronger-than-expected turnout by female voters.

Then, on the Election Day episode of her podcast, she explained, “I know I told you that I would be covering the Trump election night party from Palm Beach but turns out I have pissed off Trump’s campaign manager with my reporting and they decided to deny my credentials.”

Trump campaign co-manager Chris LaCivita later posted on social platform X, calling Palmeri a “gossip columnist” and said that she was denied credentials “due to her ‘proclivity’ to write bullshit. well well well.”

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump told supporters at a Nov. 3, 2024, campaign rally in Lititz, Pennsylvania, that he wouldn’t mind if a would-be assassin were to “shoot through” journalists in an attempt to kill him.

Trump made the remarks while complaining about ballistic glass positioned around him, commonplace at his appearances after surviving two assassination attempts this year, CBS News reported.

“I have this piece of glass here. But all we have really over here is the fake news,” Trump can be heard saying in video of the remarks as his supporters laugh. “And to get me, somebody would have to shoot through the fake news. And I don’t mind that so much. I don’t mind. I don’t mind that.”

Trump castigated journalists throughout the rally, CBS reported, at one point calling the media “bloodsuckers” and naming specific media outlets.

“ABC, ABC, fake news, CBS, ABC, NBC. These are, these are, in my opinion, in my opinion, these are seriously corrupt people,” the former president said during the rally, according to NBC.

The Associated Press reported that Trump’s campaign later played down his comments, with campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung saying, “The President’s statement about protective glass placement has nothing to do with the Media being harmed, or anything else.”

Cheung added that Trump was actually suggesting that reporters were in “great danger themselves, and should have had a glass protective shield, also. There can be no other interpretation of what was said. He was actually looking out for their welfare, far more than his own!”

Presidential candidate Donald Trump sued CBS Broadcasting in federal court on Oct. 31, 2024, alleging the network is trying to tip the election in favor of his rival Kamala Harris by deceptively editing a portion of a “60 Minutes” interview with the Democratic candidate to make her sound more “concise and intelligent.”

In the complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Trump charges CBS “doctored” a Harris exchange over U.S. relations with Israel as part of an effort to “confuse, deceive, and mislead the public” about her alleged weaknesses as a candidate.

The former president had repeatedly disparaged the network since the interview aired Oct. 7, threatening legal action, demanding it release unedited tapes and transcripts and calling for CBS to be taken off the air.

In an emailed statement to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, a spokesperson for CBS said: “Former President Trump’s repeated claims against 60 Minutes are false. The Interview was not doctored; and ‘60 Minutes’ did not hide any part of the Vice President’s answer to the question at issue. ‘60 Minutes’ fairly presented the Interview to inform the viewing audience, and not to mislead it.”

The spokesperson added, “The lawsuit Trump has brought today against CBS is completely without merit and we will vigorously defend against it.”

The suit, in which Trump says he is entitled to damages of at least $10 billion, bases its claims on CBS’ alleged violation of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Consumer Protection Act, normally meant to protect consumers from being misled by advertisers.

But several legal observers dismissed the claim as frivolous. First Amendment expert Floyd Abrams told CNN the First Amendment was drafted to protect the press from such lawsuits, and scholar Geoffrey Stone called it a “misapplication” of the law.

“That statute is about sales — a salesperson can be held liable for stating that a product has certain positive effects when he knows it doesn’t,” Stone told CBS News. “But CBS is not engaged in advertising here.”

Nicole Shanahan, running mate for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s now-suspended independent presidential bid, allegedly offered $500,000 to a Washington Post reporter to reveal sources for the publication’s Oct. 23, 2024 profile of her.

According to the Post, Shanahan, a Silicon Valley attorney and philanthropist, became aware in June that the publication was reporting for the profile, which focused on her rise to prominence among supporters of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

As part of the profile, the Post reported that Shanahan texted an associate that she would “pay your friend” — referring to a Post reporter —“half a million dollars to be a whistleblower” to expose sources Shanahan claimed were spreading false information about her.

The associate relayed the offer to the reporter, but they did not respond, according to the Post.

Prior to the profile’s publication, the Post said Shanahan responded to a detailed list of questions by rejecting parts of the paper’s reporting without offering specific answers. “I’m so sorry you feel it is appropriate to do this for political motivations,” Shanahan told the Post. “It’s a very sad state our country is in.”

The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker reached out for comment to Post reporters Elizabeth Dwoskin, Ashley Parker, Meryl Kornfield and Aaron Schaffer, who authored the Shanahan profile. Questions were referred to spokespeople for the Post, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Kennedy’s staff also did not respond to the Tracker’s request for comment.

The Post’s profile of Shanahan details her recent transition, following the suspension of Kennedy’s third-party vie for the presidency, into a wellness influencer who publicly supports Trump’s election to the White House.

The New York Times reported in May that Shanahan amassed a personal fortune of more than $1 billion, owing largely to a divorce settlement with Google co-founder Sergey Brin. In response to requests for comment for the Times article, Shanahan said: “I’m shocked the NYT is letting you run something like this.”

In Donald Trump’s latest attack on CBS over edits to a “60 Minutes” interview with Vice President Kamala Harris, a lawyer for the former president wrote the network on Oct. 21, 2024, demanding the release of an unedited transcript and suggesting Trump is considering legal action. Separately, Trump threatened to subpoena the network’s records.

The newsmagazine, in the Oct. 7 Harris interview, presented a shorter version of an exchange on war in the Middle East than the one featured in a promotional clip shown the previous day on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

In the Oct. 21 letter, obtained by Fox News, Edward Andrew Paltzik, a lawyer for Trump, said CBS “intentionally misled the public” with the edit, and went on to demand that the network release a “full, unedited” transcript of the interview. CBS had previously posted a transcript of the interview as it originally aired on Oct. 7.

Paltzik, in his letter to CBS, added that “in contemplation of possible litigation, we demand that you preserve all communications and documents relating to this Interview, together with any edits of the Interview’s content, and that you refrain from destroying any relevant communications or documents.”

The letter comes after Trump has repeatedly said in social media posts and interviews in recent days that CBS should be taken off the air for its edits to the interview.

In an Oct. 18 interview with podcaster Dan Bongino, Trump called the edit an instance of “election interference” and added that “I think I'm going to sue them, actually.” He reiterated calls for CBS to lose its “license” and for the newsmagazine to be taken off the air.

Trump repeated that call on Oct. 20 in an interview with Fox News’ Howard Kurtz, in which the Republican presidential candidate also threatened to subpoena records from CBS.

Earlier, on Oct. 10, Trump said in a post on Truth Social that CBS showed the shorter version of the Harris response on “60 Minutes” to “make her look better” and that it should be grounds to “TAKE AWAY THE CBS LICENSE.” Trump reiterated the demand in an Oct. 17 post on Truth Social, another post the same day in which he wrote that “Litigation has already started,” and in a third post later that day, in which he wrote: “RELEASE THE TAPES FOR THE GOOD OF AMERICA. We can do it the nice way, or the hard way!”

“60 Minutes,” in a statement issued on Oct. 20, said Trump’s latest characterizations of its edits to the Harris interview are false.

“60 Minutes gave an excerpt of our interview to Face the Nation that used a longer section of her answer than that on 60 Minutes. Same question. Same answer. But a different portion of the response,” the statement read. “When we edit any interview, whether a politician, an athlete, or movie star, we strive to be clear, accurate and on point. The portion of her answer on 60 Minutes was more succinct, which allows time for other subjects in a wide ranging 21-minute-long segment.”

Trump has a history of calling for broadcasters to be taken off the air in response to negative coverage of his tenure in the White House and his campaign to return to the presidency.

Last month, Trump said that ABC should lose its license over perceived unfair treatment during a presidential debate with Harris, alleging that the moderators fact-checked him more forcefully than Harris. In January, Trump said CNN and MSNBC should be taken off the air after they didn’t air a Trump speech. And during his presidency, Trump had also challenged NBC’s broadcast license.

While Federal Communications Commission Chair Jessica Rosenworcel issued a statement denouncing the Trump attack on CBS, The New York Times reported that another member of the FCC “expressed receptivity to the notion that CBS’s handling of the interview may have breached federal rules.”

The Times reported that the commissioner, Nathan Simington, wrote on X of the allegation of “distortion” of the news: “Interesting. Big if true.” Trump then shared the post on Truth Social.

An independent journalist invited to a Kamala Harris campaign event in Detroit on Oct. 14, 2024, was asked by staff to leave after he posted photos and quotes from it on social media. The reporter was later allowed to reenter the get-out-the-vote gathering.

Sam Robinson, a freelance reporter based in Detroit, was attending the event, billed as a “Black Men Huddle Up,” with actors Don Cheadle and Delroy Lindo, and former South Carolina Rep. Bakari Sellers, when Robinson posted a photo to social platform X, writing, “‘Not reportable’ Harris campaign tells reporters after inviting us.”

Robinson posted a second time, less than an hour later, again noting, “It’s a private, invite only event,” while including commentary about what speakers were saying.

A few minutes later, Robinson posted again to say that he had been asked to leave by the Harris campaign. “Apparently press wasn’t supposed to be here, though I do appreciate the invitations,” Robinson added, including screenshots of an email invitation he received to the event and confirmation of his RSVP.

Former Rep. Peter Meijer, R-Mich., then replied to Robinson’s post: “I really don’t get the Harris campaign’s emphasis on control and curation (ie, banning reporters from interviewing attendees at events). Their actions project insecurity instead of an image of confidence they ostensibly would prefer be the narrative.”

Robinson told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that reporters from Bridge Michigan and Michigan Public Radio were also present but were allowed to stay.

Robinson said that shortly after he received a call from a Harris campaign representative to say that the reporter’s ejection was a “misunderstanding” and he would be allowed to reenter.

“After they saw the reaction from the public they invited me back in,” Robinson told the Tracker.

Representatives from the Harris campaign did not respond to the Tracker’s request for comment on Robinson’s ejection from the event.

Former President Donald Trump called for CBS to be stripped of its broadcast license in an Oct. 10, 2024, social media post, after taking issue with an abridged version of the network’s “60 Minutes” interview with Vice President Kamala Harris.

The newsmagazine, in its Oct. 7 airing of the interview, presented a shorter version of correspondent Bill Whitaker’s exchange with Harris about the United States’ engagement with Israel on war in the Middle East than the version featured the previous day in a promotional clip aired on CBS’ Sunday morning show “Face the Nation,” reported The Daily Beast.

The Republican presidential nominee, who had declined to be interviewed by “60 Minutes,” then attacked CBS for broadcasting two different versions of the interview.

In a post on Trump’s Truth Social platform, he wrote: “A FAKE NEWS SCAM, which is totally illegal. TAKE AWAY THE CBS LICENSE. Election Interference. She is a Moron, and the Fake News Media wants to hide that fact. An UNPRECEDENTED SCANDAL!!! The Dems got them to do this and should be forced to concede the Election? WOW!”

Later on Oct. 10, Trump posted again, this time on social platform X, calling for not only CBS to lose its license, but also “all other Broadcast Licenses, because they are just as corrupt as CBS—and maybe even WORSE!”

In a statement to Variety, the Harris campaign attributed the broadcast of two different versions of the interview to CBS’ editorial discretion, saying, “We do not control CBS’ production decisions.”

CBS did not immediately respond to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker’s request for comment.

Trump has demonstrated a yearslong pattern of calling for broadcasters to be stripped of their licenses in response to negative coverage of his tenure in the White House and his campaign to return to the presidency.

Most recently, on Sept. 11, Trump said that ABC should lose its license over what he called unfair treatment during a presidential debate with Harris by moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis. Trump claimed that the journalists fact-checked him more forcefully than Harris and that they refused to call out what he said were his Democratic opponent’s false statements.

Following that attack on ABC, Federal Communications Commission Chair Jessica Rosenworcel issued a statement in which she said that Trump’s calls for revocation of broadcasters’ licenses may run afoul of their rights under the First Amendment.

Rosenworcel had previously responded to a challenge to NBC’s broadcast license by Trump during his presidency, clarifying that the agency only regulates broadcast stations, not broadcast networks.

After Trump’s more recent challenge to CBS, Rosenworcel again issued a statement denouncing the comments, casting them as an affront to press freedoms.

“While repeated attacks against broadcast stations by the former President may now be familiar, these threats against free speech are serious and should not be ignored,” Rosenworcel said in the Oct. 10 statement. “As I’ve said before, the First Amendment is a cornerstone of our democracy. The FCC does not and will not revoke licenses for broadcast stations simply because a political candidate disagrees with or dislikes content or coverage.”

GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump said that ABC should be stripped of its broadcast license because of the way network journalists David Muir and Linsey Davis moderated his Sept. 10, 2024, presidential debate with Vice President Kamala Harris.

In an interview with “Fox & Friends” the morning after the debate, Trump claimed that Muir and Davis fact-checked him more forcefully than Harris and refused to call out what he said were his Democratic opponent’s false statements.

“It was three to one. It was a rigged deal as I assumed it would be,” Trump said during a call-in to the Sept. 11 program. “Because when you look at the fact that they were correcting everything and not correcting with her, and we knew it, when it was 100% good coverage for her over the last month or last year. I looked at it and only bad coverage of me no matter what. The press is so dishonest in this country. It’s amazing.”

Trump went on in the interview to bash ABC as the “most dishonest news organization, and that’s saying a lot because they’re all essentially really dishonest.”

Later in the interview, Trump said: “To be honest, they are a news organization, they have to be licensed to do it. They ought to take away their license for the way they did that.”

Trump’s statements drew pushback from Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, who disputed the notion that the agency could sanction ABC over the debate without running afoul of its First Amendment protections.

“The FCC does not revoke licenses for broadcast stations simply because a political candidate disagrees with or dislikes content or coverage,” Rosenworcel said in a statement to The Washington Post.

The former president has a history of calling for broadcasters to lose licenses for the way they cover him.

In 2017, his first year in the White House, Trump mused in a post on Twitter about challenging NBC’s broadcast license after the network reported that Trump surprised military leaders with a plan to grow the country’s nuclear arsenal.

At the time, Rosenworcel, then one of five FCC commissioners, tweeted back to Trump, “Not how it works,” with a link to agency regulations that clarifies that the agency only regulates broadcast stations, not broadcast networks.

More recently, at a January campaign rally, Trump said that NBC and CNN should have their licenses taken away for declining to show his victory speech following the Iowa Republican caucuses.

The White House News Photographers Association has taken Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign to task for reducing the number of seats available for pool photographers on the vice president’s plane.

In an Aug. 28, 2024, letter to the campaign obtained by Axios, WHNPA President Jessica Koscielniak said the Harris campaign implemented an “unprecedented reduction in access” by reducing the number of seats available for still photographers on Air Force Two from four to one.

“The WHNPA strongly calls on the Harris campaign to reconsider the number of media seats allowed on Air Force 2,” Koscielniak wrote, according to Axios. The group proposed for the campaign to either add a “chaser plane” for additional media or for the White House Correspondents’ Association to reorganize who gets a seat.

“The Constitution requires a free press, and the American people deserve transparency. Our respective duties are crucial to upholding these principles,” WHNPA wrote in a Sept. 12 post on Facebook.

Axios reported that Harris’ office did not respond to the WHNPA’s letter until Sept. 11, after Axios reached out for comment.

In its response, which the association shared with the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, Harris’ office said that the suggestions to add more seats on Air Force Two or using a chaser plane are “not viable … given available resources, including personnel and aircraft.” But the office said it will ensure that nine seats are available on the vice president’s plane for members of the media.

The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to a request from the Tracker for comment.

Reduced access to top Democratic leaders has been a concern for the press corps throughout President Joe Biden’s time in the White House. As of June 30, Biden had given fewer interviews and news conferences than the six preceding presidents, according to Axios.

Harris, since becoming the Democratic presidential front-runner on Aug. 5, has sat for three high-profile, nationally televised interviews as of Sept. 17. In her latest interview, hosted Sept. 17 by the National Association of Black Journalists, Harris took questions for more than an hour from journalists from NPR, TheGrio and Politico.

“It is good to be with the National Association of Black Journalists and I thank you for the work you do and that your members do every day,” said the presidential hopeful. “It is very important that we ensure that this organization and your members always have the resources and the platforms to deliver the voices that must be heard.”

In July, Donald Trump, Harris’ GOP opponent, sat for an interview hosted by the NABJ with journalists from ABC News, Fox News and Semafor that quickly turned combative.

Former President Donald Trump threatened to sue The New York Times in an Aug. 9, 2024, phone call with a reporter at the paper when asked for evidence to back up Trump’s claim that he and Vice President Kamala Harris’ former romantic partner once shared a helicopter ride that made an emergency landing.

In the heated phone interview, the Republican presidential candidate lashed out over the publication’s coverage of Trump’s story about an ill-fated chopper ride with former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown in the 1990s.

Brown briefly dated Harris, the Democratic front-runner for the presidency, around the time.

“This was not a pleasant landing, and Willie was, he was a little concerned,” Trump said during an Aug. 8, 2024, news conference at his Florida residence, Mar-a-Lago, according to NBC News. “So I know him. I know him pretty well. I mean, I haven’t seen him in years, but he told me terrible things about (Harris).”

Brown has denied ever sharing a helicopter ride with Trump. Nate Holden, a former Los Angeles city councilman and California state senator, later said that he shared the helicopter ride around 1990 that Trump apparently referred to in his remarks and that the former president has confused him for Brown.

According to The Times’ White House Correspondent Maggie Haberman, Trump responded to the outlet’s coverage of his account by making an angry call to a reporter in which he claimed that he could produce logs proving that he shared the flight with Brown and that he was “probably going to sue” The Times over its article.

“We have the flight records of the helicopter,” Trump told the reporter, saying the helicopter had landed “in a field.”

Haberman wrote that when Trump was asked to produce the flight records, he “responded mockingly, repeating the request in a sing-song voice.” As of press time for Haberman’s article, he had not furnished the logs.

Trump disparaged the Times again on Aug. 11, with a post on his social networking site Truth Social, in which he wrote, “The Failing New York Times, which is a crooked newspaper run by a Radical Left group of Lunatics, is losing readers at a record level. Their stories about me are highly inaccurate, and their polling is even worse. They are a big reason for the DECLINE OF NEW YORK CITY, which the entire World is watching with shock and sorrow! Its only hope is that I get elected President. I will fix it, and fix it fast!”

Donald Trump repeatedly bashed an ABC News correspondent during a combative live interview at the annual gathering of the National Association of Black Journalists on July 31, 2024, after the reporter questioned the Republican presidential candidate on his racially charged statements about Black public officials and journalists.

Moderator Rachel Scott, a senior congressional correspondent for ABC News, and her co-moderators for the event, Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner and Semafor political correspondent Kadia Goba, are all Black women.

Scott opened the Q&A asking why Black voters should trust him after Trump had pushed false claims about the citizenship of Black political rivals, used derogatory terms to describe Black district attorneys, dined with a white supremacist and attacked Black journalists as “losers,” calling their questions “stupid” and “racist.”

Trump snapped at Scott: “Well, first of all, I don’t think I’ve ever been asked a question so, in such a horrible manner, the first question. You don’t even say, ‘Hello. How are you?’ Are you with ABC? Because I think they’re a fake news network, a terrible network. And I think it’s disgraceful that I came here in good spirit. I love the Black population of this country.”

After briefly discussing his record of measures intended to boost Black employment and support historically Black colleges and universities, Trump turned his attention back to Scott, saying she gave him a “very rude introduction.”

“I don’t know why exactly you would do something like that,” the former president said.

“And let me go a step further,” Trump continued. “I was invited here and I was told my opponent, whether it was Biden or Kamala, I was told my opponent would be here. It turned out my opponent isn’t here. You invited me under false pretense.”

Trump then castigated Scott over the fact that the interview began more than 30 minutes late “because their equipment wasn’t working, or something” — a grievance he revisited several times throughout the interview.

“I think it’s a very nasty question,” Trump said, talking over Scott as she attempted to interject. “I was the best president for the Black population since Abraham Lincoln.”

Some in the crowd jeered the remark and then applauded as Scott followed up with, “Better than President (Lyndon) Johnson, who signed the Voting Rights Act?”

Trump appeared to brush off the question as he continued his tirade against the reporter: “For you to start a question-and-answer period, especially when you’re 35 minutes late, because you couldn’t get your equipment to work, in such a hostile manner, I think it’s a disgrace.”

After a series of widely reported exchanges, including about the racial identity of Vice President Kamala Harris, Black “jobs,” the shooting death of Sonya Massey and his federal prosecution, Scott interjected: “We have you for a limited time, sir. I’d love to move on to different topics.”

“No, excuse me, you’re the one who held me up for 35 minutes,” Trump retorted.

Later in the interview, when Goba asked if Trump would step down from the presidency if he were in declining health, Trump once again turned his sights on Scott.

“How would you make that decision?” Goba asked.

“I think I’d know — Look, if I came onto a stage like this and I got treated so rudely as this woman treated me,” Trump said, gesturing to Scott.

“And I’m fine with it, because she … was very rude, sir. Very rude. That wasn’t a question. She gave a statement,” Trump continued.

“I repeated your statement, sir,” Scott retorted.

Ultimately, the Q&A was cut short.

Trump has faced past criticism for making disparaging remarks to Black women journalists during interviews.

While in office in 2018, he called April Ryan, The Grio’s White House correspondent, a “loser” and told CNN’s Abby Phillip, “You ask a lot of stupid questions.”

Trump’s contentious interview at the NABJ conference drew the ire of some Black journalists.

“Donald Trump in typical form on this circus of a #NABJ panel is being aggressive & rude to @RachelVScott – a Black woman. Very reminiscent of his past treatment of @AprilDRyan @Yamiche & @jemelehill,” TV producer Jawn Murray wrote on X. “A journalism advocacy group has platformed this 34-time felon for this abuse.”

Others were critical of NABJ leadership failing to make fact-checking available to the journalists on the panel, while some protested the fact that Trump was invited to the event in the first place.

“Trump came into our home, a Black Press advocacy convention, and insulted us in our face. What is worse he was invited to do this by NABJ leadership. Shame!” Ryan wrote on social platform X.

With respect to the event’s delay, Philip Lewis, HuffPost deputy editor, posted on X that the holdup was being caused by a disagreement between the NABJ and the former president over providing live fact-checking for Scott, Goba and Faulkner.

“I’m told that Trump is demanding that NABJ not do the live fact checking and that’s why the event hasn’t started yet. ‘We’re in a standoff,’” he wrote.

In the aftermath of the interview, The Guardian wrote that Scott reportedly received death threats.

“At a membership meeting today, NABJ’s executive director said ABC’s Rachel Scott had received death threats following her work asking incisive questions of Donald Trump” at the group’s national convention, Eric Deggans of National Public Radio wrote in an X post published Aug. 3.

Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia laid blame for the recent attempt on former President Donald Trump’s life at the feet of the news media, during a heated July 16 interview with the U.K.-based Times Radio, an affiliate of the Times of London, while at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

“You’re the cause of our country being divided. You’re the cause of President Trump almost being assassinated. You’re the cause of everything wrong in America,” Greene told Times Radio’s Jo Crawford in an on-camera interview.

Greene referred to the assassination attempt after Crawford asked the Georgia congresswoman about a recent statement by Trump’s running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance, who said the U.K. could be the first “truly Islamist country that will get a nuclear weapon,” under the control of the country’s recently elected Labour government.

“Doesn’t that paint a sour picture for relations with the U.K.?” Crawford asked.

“Well, let’s talk about the words of the Democrats and Joe Biden that have also labeled President Trump as a fascist, labeled all of us as Nazis and Hitler — completely lied,” Greene responded. “Demonizing him so much so that a young man, a 20-year old, which is hard to imagine, actually climbed onto a roof and tried to murder President Trump.”

Greene then began pointing at Crawford and interrupted the journalist as she tried to ask a followup question.

“Let’s talk about people like you that demonize people like me, President Trump,” Greene continued. “You know I have some of the most highest amount of death threats because of people like you, because you choose to only take certain words from people, and then that’s what you want to report. Shame on you.”

After asking which organization Crawford works for, Greene added: “You’re ridiculous.”

“And you’re the problem in our country,” Greene continued. “You lie about people like me. This is the first time you’ve ever talked to me. I want you to know I’m a regular person like you. I’m also a mom, I have three kids, and we have to put up with the most unreal amount of bullshit because of little liars like you that take your job and turn it into political activism. Your job is the press. You should report the news. Not lie.”

Crawford subsequently posted on X that “Marjorie Taylor Greene called me ‘ridiculous’ and said that ‘I’m the cause’ of the attempted assassination of Trump. Day 2 at the Republican Convention going well!”

Greene, in a social media post last December, had called for journalists to be jailed for the investigations into Trump’s ties to Russia. “Democrats and their propagandists in the media put America through hell trying to take out President Trump,” Greene wrote. “These thugs and criminals need to be held accountable — even jailed — for what they did to Trump and our great country.”

Kari Lake, a GOP candidate for U.S. Senate in Arizona, said during a July 16 address at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee that journalists there had “worn out their welcome,” referred to them as “fake news” and generally accused the media of untruthful reporting favoring President Joe Biden.

“Welcome to everybody in this great arena tonight. We love you all. Actually, actually, wait a minute. I don’t mean that. I don’t welcome everybody in this room. The guys up in the fake news, frankly, you guys up there in the fake news have worn out your welcome,” Lake said while pointing toward press areas in Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The remark was met with cheers from convention attendees.

“You have spent the last eight years lying about President Donald Trump and his amazing patriotic supporters,” Lake continued. “Actually, guys, they lie about everything. They’ve lied about Joe Biden’s health, the economy, the laptop, the border. I could go on and on and on. But the really good news is that every day, more and more people are turning off the fake news.”

Heidi Schlumpf, a senior correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter who covered the speech, said in a post on X that Lake’s comments were prompting boos at the media from the crowd and so she was told not to display her media credentials for her safety.

Attendees harassed journalists during Lake’s remarks, confirmed political consultant Frank Luntz in a post on X. “I’m on the media platform as she is attacking the media. Convention goers are yelling at the people around me – it’s a really strange experience,” Luntz wrote.

In an interview with KPNX TV anchor Mark Curtis in Phoenix following her address, Lake, a former newscaster, doubled down on her characterization of the media.

“At your speech in front of the RNC,” said Curtis, “you had a chance to address America at a time when America in many ways is dealing with the aftermath of the attempted (Trump) assassination, and yet you chose to attack the media rather than talk about coming together as a country. Don’t you think political rhetoric like that is also damaging? I mean, this is an industry, Kari, that put food on your table for years.”

“The country is much more united than you report,” Lake responded. “And sadly, you guys want to keep stoking hatred toward the people who are with President Trump and support him. We’ve watched an eight-year smear campaign at the hands of the media against President Trump.”

The safety of journalists who cover party conventions is a perennial concern for news organizations and professional journalism associations.

“We call on all who are attending the convention, as participants or protestors to let us do our jobs safely on behalf of the American people who have every right to know the details of one of the biggest political events of the election,” National Press Club president Emily Wilkins said in a statement issued before the convention, which was held July 15-18. “We call upon those who speak from the podium at the convention to refrain from language that could inflame those in the streets against journalists.”

Sen. J.D. Vance, newly named as Donald Trump’s running mate, used a July 15 Fox News interview to blame the media for highly critical statements the Ohio Republican made about the former president when Trump was running for office in 2016.

Among the disparaging comments made by Vance was a comparison of Trump with Adolf Hitler and a reference to Trump as “cultural heroin.”

In the July 15 interview, conducted hours after Trump announced that he was tapping the 39-year-old senator for his ticket, Fox News host Sean Hannity asked Vance about his past comments.

“I bought into the media’s lies and distortions. I bought into this idea that somehow he was going to be so different, a terrible threat to democracy,” Vance said during the interview. “It was a joke. Joe Biden is the one who is trying to throw his political opposition in jail. Joe Biden is the one trying to undermine American law and order. President Trump did a really good job.”

While several of Vance’s criticisms were aired in 2016, his comparison of Trump to Hitler came to light in 2022, while Vance was a candidate for the U.S. Senate and after Trump had endorsed his bid.

The Ohio Capital Journal reported that Josh McLaurin, who attended Yale Law School with Vance and who was then a Democratic state representative in Georgia, published a screenshot of a 2016 conversation in which Vance compared Trump to Adolf Hitler.

“I go back and forth between thinking Trump is a cynical asshole like Nixon who wouldn’t be that bad (and might even prove useful) or that he’s America’s Hitler,” he wrote privately to McLaurin, who is now a state senator in Georgia.

In a statement to the Ohio Capital Journal at the time, Vance’s then-campaign manager Jordan Wiggins characterized the comment about Trump as old news.

“It’s laughable that the media treats J.D. not liking Trump six years ago as some sort of breaking news, when they’ve already covered it to death since this race began,” Wiggins wrote. “Clearly, President Trump trusts that J.D. is a genuine convert, as out of all the Republican candidates running, he endorsed J.D. and concluded that he is the strongest America First conservative in the race.”

After Vance clinched the Republican nomination for the seat, he told Fox News that he had a “change of heart” on Trump.

“When you have a change of heart, when you have a change of mind, you should just be honest about it. When the facts change, you should change your mind in this country,” Vance said.

“Trump was a great president. I think it’s great for the people of Ohio,” he added. “And I think it’s actually refreshing for a person who’s running for political office to not try to hide or pretend they didn’t say something and say, ‘Yeah, I didn’t like him in 2016. I liked him now because he was a great president.’ It's really that simple.”

At least three journalists have been stripped of their press credentials for Donald Trump campaign events in recent months as apparent punitive measures for unfavorable coverage, according to a published report.

Vanity Fair’s Charlotte Klein wrote April 19 that Washington Post national political reporter Isaac Arnsdorf has not been able to enter Trump campaign events as credentialed media since February.

The campaign had asked Arnsdorf to change the title of his upcoming book, “Finish What We Started: The MAGA Movement’s Ground War to End Democracy,” which was published in early April. When Arnsdorf didn’t acquiesce, the campaign cut off his press access, reported Klein. He has since covered events from the section reserved for the general public, according to Vanity Fair.

Arnsdorf did not respond to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker’s request for comment. In a statement to the Tracker, a Washington Post spokesperson said the publication “will continue to fairly, accurately and independently report on the presidential campaign, including candidates' rallies and other events.”

Vanity Fair, citing multiple sources, reported that the campaign has taken “similar punitive measures” in recent weeks against an Axios reporter and Brian Stelter, a special correspondent for Vanity Fair, as well as at least one other Post reporter.

According to the magazine, the Trump campaign granted press credentials to an Axios reporter, but revoked them after Axios published an article on the Republican National Committee’s struggle to build staff in swing states.

The Axios reporter is not named by Vanity Fair. Axios did not respond to the Tracker’s requests for comment.

Stelter confirmed in an April 19 post on his X account, in which he shared Klein’s article, that he was denied press credentials for Trump’s recent rally in Schnecksville, Pennsylvania.

“Folks asking why I wanted Trump rally press credentials: It’s really valuable for reporters and analysts to see candidates up close,” Stelter said in a reply to his post.

Stelter did not respond to the Tracker’s request for comment.

In a statement to Vanity Fair, Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said that, “Nobody has been denied access to our events” and that the campaign has “been the most press-friendly and accessible in modern history.”

Trump has a history of revoking press credentials for news outlets for coverage perceived as unfavorable to him, both as a candidate and during his tenure as president. Earlier this year, for instance, two journalists were told they could not be credentialed for a Trump rally in Iowa, although they were ultimately approved.

And during the 2020 campaign, the Trump team pulled a New York Times journalist from another rally, barred BuzzFeed staff from a caucus watch party, removed a Bloomberg reporter from a news conference after having said it would not credential Bloomberg News journalists, and banned reporters from multiple outlets from a third rally.

A reporter for online news outlet The Colorado Sun was escorted by law enforcement from an assembly of the Colorado Republican Party on April 6 for allegedly unfavorable coverage.

Sandra Fish has covered Colorado politics since 1982 and attended conventions of both major parties. But according to an account in The Colorado Sun, during the early hours of April 6, she received a text message from party representative Eric Grossman that said the assembly in Pueblo, Colorado, was not an “open press event” and that she would not be added to the latest list of credentialed journalists given access.

Grossman added that the party chairman, Dave Williams, found her “current reporting to be very unfair.”

Nevertheless, when Fish later arrived at the venue, she was granted entry and provided press credentials, which she displayed on a lanyard. Then, in an encounter captured on video by other journalists at the event, Fish was confronted by a sheriff’s deputy and a member of the event staff.

“You have to be invited here. They don’t want you here. We have to get you out of here,” the deputy is heard saying in a video of the incident recorded by Pueblo Chieftain politics reporter Anna Lynn Winfrey.

Winfrey’s video also captures the same event staff member asking for Winfrey’s credentials, then confiscating Fish’s press lanyard. Fish was then led out of the venue.

In a text to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, party chairman Williams said he makes “no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist.” He added that Fish “actually snuck into our event.”

Colorado Sun Editor Larry Ryckman said in an interview with the Tracker that, as of April 8, Fish had received no further contact from the Colorado GOP regarding her ejection from the assembly.

“Sandra Fish is an experienced, respected journalist who’s covered countless state assemblies for the Republicans, as well as the Democrats,” Ryckman said. “She's a fair and impartial journalist whose work has been vouched for by Republicans and Democrats.”

Meanwhile, Fish’s ejection from the event drew rebukes by elected officials from both of Colorado’s major political parties on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer called it “disgusting,” and wrote, “As a Republican I’m embarrassed by the GOP chair.”

Rep. Matt Soper, also a Republican, wrote, “A healthy and transparent republic means you allow the public and media to observe the process of selecting candidates to represent our state in public office.”

Democratic state Sen. Nick Hinrichsen said it was an “egregious abuse of power and violation of trust.”

The Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition also condemned the removal, writing on X that it “undermines the vital role of the free press and directly impacts thousands of Coloradans who rely on The Sun for coverage.”

The Colorado Pro chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists spoke out as well, stating, “The action represents a hostile disregard for the fundamental standards of transparency, accountability and press freedom.”

Former President Donald Trump, however, defended Williams’ action, writing in a post on Truth Social that the state GOP chair “is under Fake News assault because he is doing such a strong job as an advocate for MAGA.”

But Fish, in an interview with The Washington Post, maintained that while political parties may be private organizations, they are doing public business by nominating candidates on the party’s behalf. She added that she would continue to cover such political events, saying, “I’m just going to show up.”

Donald Trump’s campaign told an NBC News correspondent working as a pool reporter for five major networks that he could not attend a rally in New Hampshire but provided no justification for the prohibition, two days before the Jan. 23 primary in that state.

In an email to the rest of the campaign network pool that was obtained by The New York Times, NBC’s Vaughn Hillyard, who regularly covers the Trump campaign, said the campaign objected to his attending a Jan. 21 rally in New Hampshire.

“Your pooler was told that if he was the designated pooler by NBC News that the pool would be cut off for the day,” Hillyard wrote. “After affirming to the campaign that your pooler would attend the events, NBC News was informed at about 2:20 p.m. that the pool would not be allowed to travel with Trump today.”

The network pool also includes ABC, CBS, CNN and Fox News. The Times reported that Hillyard was able to attend another Trump event later on Jan. 21.

Steven Cheung, a spokesman for the Trump campaign, told The Times that it does not “bar reporters based on their reporting” and holds some events without a network pool. Cheung did not respond to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker’s request for comment.

Trump has a long history of clashing with high-profile members of the press and Hillyard is no exception.

Vanity Fair reported that, during a March 2023 press gaggle held aboard Trump’s plane following a campaign event, Trump became agitated with Hillyard when the reporter began questioning him about Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s criminal investigation into the former president.

Trump grabbed Hillyard’s two phones from him and threw them, according to Vanity Fair.

“Get him out of here,” Trump was heard telling his aides in audio of the incident obtained by the magazine.

In a separate incident on Jan. 19, Hillyard got into a heated exchange with New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, who some speculate is being considered as a running mate for Trump, at a Trump campaign event when Hillyard asked questions relating to E. Jean Carroll’s defamation case against the former president.

CNN’s Kate Sullivan posted video of the exchange on X, formerly known as Twitter:

Donald Trump claimed during a campaign rally that CNN and MSNBC “refused” to televise his Jan. 15 victory speech after the Iowa Republican caucuses, and said the networks should be taken off the air.

“NBC and CNN refused to air my victory speech, think of it, because they are crooked, they’re dishonest and, frankly, they should have their licenses or whatever they have taken away,” Trump said at a Jan. 16 campaign event in Atkinson, New Hampshire, which was broadcast by C-SPAN.

CNN televised about nine minutes of Trump’s 22-minute speech, according to the Daily Beast. The network then cut away to anchor Jake Tapper, who explained to viewers that it did so because Trump was delivering “anti-immigrant rhetoric,” The Hill reported.

Meanwhile, MSNBC aired footage of Trump behind the podium in Atkinson but didn’t show the speech.

As Trump began his remarks, the network cut to anchor Rachel Maddow, who provided projected vote totals for the caucuses before going on to explain that MSNBC and other organizations have ceased providing an “unfiltered live platform” for the former president.

“There is a cost to us as a news organization of knowingly broadcasting untrue things,” Maddow said. “And that is a fundamental truth of our business and who we are.”

Representatives from CNN and MSNBC did not immediately respond to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker’s requests for comment.

U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., has ended a crackdown on media access to public town hall events hosted by his congressional office.

Beginning last August, Lawler — who is running for reelection in a tossup district facing redistricting in New York’s Hudson Valley — barred entry to journalists who don’t live in his district, while restricting the newsgathering capabilities of those allowed in.

He explained the restrictions as a means of protecting his town hall meetings from getting “hijacked by out-of-district political grandstanders” looking for a viral video clip.

Lawler’s campaign office did not respond to questions from the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker about its press policy for campaign-related events.

But on Jan. 5, Lawler reversed the town hall media ban, announcing that credentialed journalists will be allowed into the events and will be able to use cameras.

“Upon reflection, while well-intentioned, these rules could have been explained and implemented in a better way,” Lawler said. He also said that he would retract his policy of not taking questions from journalists at the town halls and would hold press gaggles after each event.

Up until the Jan. 5 policy shift, Lawler’s staff enforced a constituents-only standard at his town hall events. Journalists from The Journal News in Westchester County and The Highlands Current in Putnam County, because they live in Lawler’s district, were able to gain access to town hall events at times but were prohibited from bringing in cameras or making audio recordings.

A reporter from The New York Times and a camera crew from News 12 Westchester, however, were barred from fall town halls.

Lawler, one of 18 Republican members of Congress elected in 2022 to swing districts where voters favored President Joe Biden in 2020, drew criticism for the policy from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Also, Common Cause New York, a nonprofit dedicated to election reform, circulated a petition calling on the first-term congressman to let journalists into his events.

When asked by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker for more details about what led to Lawler’s about-face on press access, Nate Soule, Lawler’s deputy chief of staff, said in an email the change followed “feedback” about the policy.

Two journalists were told — without explanation — that they could not be credentialed for a Donald Trump campaign rally on Jan. 5 in Mason City, Iowa, although they were ultimately approved for passes after applying a second time.

“I just reapplied for credentials for me and our political reporter,” Lisa Grouette, an editor for the local Globe Gazette newspaper posted on Jan. 1 on X, formerly known as Twitter. “But as it sits, it looks like, without any explanation, we’re not being allowed to cover the Trump rally in Mason City on Friday.”

One day later, however, Grouette announced that a second request for credentials was approved, though she said she was still not sure why they would have been denied in the first place.

Trump has a long history of revoking press credentials for news outlets for coverage perceived as unfavorable to him, both as a candidate and during his tenure as president.

When reached by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, Grouette declined to comment further or identify the second Globe Gazette reporter.

A Trump spokesperson commented to Newsweek regarding the denial: “What the f*** are you even talking about?” The spokesperson added: “We have Globe Gazette reporters at our events.”

But as Newsweek notes in its report, Trump has long demonized the press: “There have long been concerns over the former president's treatment of journalists and what a second term would look like.”

Student reporters working with The Daily Iowan, an independent newspaper serving the University of Iowa, were denied credentials and later barred from entering a Dec. 13 campaign event for Donald Trump in the Hawkeye State.

Iowan politics editor Liam Halawith told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he, reporter Alejandro Rojas, photographer Bella Tisdale and videographer Ashley Weil were all denied access to cover the rally via email from the Trump campaign.

Halawith said Trump’s campaign team offered no reasons for denying the request for credentials for the event in Coralville, which was widely covered by local and national news organizations.

Halawith then appeared in person for the event at the Hyatt Regency in Coralville, and was barred from entering, he told the Tracker. He said that staff at the event did not explain why Daily Iowan reporters were not allowed to attend the event.

“I was denied via email then attempted to gain access by asking If I could…enter and asked if they could tell me why our team was denied,” Halawith told the Tracker. “They said I could not attend and didn't have an answer on the denial.”

Representatives from Trump’s campaign did not respond to requests for more information about why the student reporters were denied credentials.

Iowa’s caucuses for Republican presidential candidates begin on Jan. 15.

Former President Donald Trump, without evidence in a late-night Nov. 28 post to the social media site Truth Social, accused MSNBC of baselessly attacking him in an effort to interfere with the 2024 election.

In a screenshot reposted to another platform, the front-runner for the Republican nomination called the television news outlet “nothing but a 24 hour hit job on Donald J. Trump and the Republic Party for purposes of ELECTION INTERFERENCE.”

Trump added that the government should “come down hard on them and make them pay for their illegal political activity.” The post did not specify what type of action he hoped the government would take.

The post also attacked Brian Roberts, chairman and CEO of MSNBC parent company Comcast Corporation, which owns multiple broadcast networks including NBC and Telemundo.

During the opening minutes of the third Republican presidential debate, candidate Vivek Ramaswamy targeted NBC News anchor Kristen Welker and the “corrupt media establishment” in his response as to why he should be the party nominee for president.

In detailing how the Republican party became a “party of losers,” Ramaswamy turned his attention to Welker, one of three moderators: “It’s about you in the media and the corrupt media establishment.”

He also falsely claimed previous elections were rigged by the news media. “This media rigged the 2016 election, they rigged the 2020 election with the Hunter Biden laptop story and they’re going to rig this election unless we have accountability,” Ramaswamy said.

The debate aired on NBC News.